Hello families,
The first week back after the break was a busy one! To kick-off the week, we predicted whether or not March would come in like a lamb or lion, and it appears March has come in like a lion! We analyzed a poem, completed a writing piece, and created cute little lambs and lions to celebrate the start of a new month. We will wait to see if March will indeed “tiptoe out like a lamb”…..
In literacy we have continued with phonics, word families, daily writing using our “checklist,” and reading in our guided reading groups. This week we have started to learn about “visualization” which, like connecting, is a strategy used when reading. We learned that as we read our brains make “pictures” in our head and the pictures change as we read more of a story and are provided more details by the author. We also did a LOT of writing in inquiry and I am so proud of the students! We are learning about the writing process and began with the “pre-writing” stage. We brainstormed facts that we have learned about bats and created “thought-webs” to illustrate this learning. Then, we used our individual knowledge to write rough/first drafts of acrostic poems about bats. We went through and self-edited our writing using our checklist and then we were ready to write our final copies! Our bat poems are on display outside our room in the display case.
In numeracy we have been working hard on learning addition strategies. We have created and have been practicing our doubles song and have also learned the “counting-on” or “counting-up” strategy. Students learned to start with the larger number in an equation and count-on the smaller number to find the sum. The students have also been learning how to count to 10 in Cree!
In health we have continued to learn about the heart and will learn about the function and importance of our lungs this week with hands-on activities and a special guest speaker! We have also discussed the many ways in which we keep our whole body healthy.
To accompany our bat poems, we also drew our own diagrams of bats which we then labeled to show the different body parts of a bats. Many students were surprised to learn just how similar our own bodies are to bats (we both have four fingers and a thumb!) We also got to see a real bat house this week when a student brought in one that he and his grandfather made over the break, and we were SO excited and engaged. I have a feeling we will have more questions about bat houses as we move further into our inquiry unit!
Finally, we celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday on Thursday. He would have been 113 years old if he were still alive! We read several Dr. Seuss books, including Yurtle the Turtle, and engaged in literacy and numeracy activities throughout the day!
This week we have our field trip to the museum on Tuesday. Thank you so much to all of the parents who are volunteering their time and energy to help out! I will also be sending out information in regards to our “Celebration of Learning” conferences which are coming up on March. 24th.
Have a great weekend!
Ms. Holmes